Displays on movie screens, televisions, portable and non-portable game platforms, laptops, smart phones, tablets and wearable devices with display are capable of displaying three-dimensional (3D) electronic content.
Wearable devices are becoming more popular and are also capable of display 3D electronic content. The calculator watch, introduced in the 1980s, was one of the original wearable devices. A few other examples includes a Bluetooth headset in a pair of earrings with a hidden microphone, a “Spy Tie” with a color video camera, a “Pocket Tweet” with a Java application applying a TWITTER text bubble to a person's shirt with Tweets, ZED-phones stitched headphones into beanies and headbands allowing riders, snowboarders, drivers and runners to stay connected, hands-free, etc.
Wearable technology has applications in monitoring and real-time feedback for athletes as well. Transitioning to night life and entertainment industries electroluminescent shirts have appeared in concerts SONY developed a “smart wig” This “Smartwig” includes a Global Positioning System (GPS), a camera and a laser pointer system and connects to other devices.
The digital glasses, such as GOOGLE Glass, include prototypes for digital eyewear with heads up display (HUD) are being developed. The US military also employs headgear with displays for soldiers using a technology called holographic optics.
Smart watches by SONY, NIKE, SAMSUNG, and others are additional examples. ABI Research forecasts about 1.2 million smart watches will be shipped in 2013 due to high penetration of smart phones in many world markets, the wide availability and low cost of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors, energy efficient connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth 4.0, and a flourishing app ecosystem.
According to ABI Research, due to the relative ease of compatibility with smart phones and other electronic devices, the wearable technologies market will likely spike to about 485 million annual device shipments by 2018.
Most 3D displays create the illusion of depth by presenting a different image to each eye through 3D glasses such as “filtered lenses” and “active shutter glasses.” In addition to wearing glasses, neither method is suitable for long-duration viewing.
“Filtered lenses” 3D viewing creates an image where part goes to one eye and part to another, and part to both. One problem with this method is the color perception variety; it's extremely hard to balance colors so that a viewer's brain takes the broken-up colors and assembles them correctly. Wearing “active-shutter glasses” has potential health hazards when operated by having each eye being completely blocked out thirty or sixty times per second.
“Autostereoscopic display” is another 3D method with one pixel or group of pixels has its light directed to one eye, and another group to the other. Because the placement of the slits and therefore the viewable angle of the affected lines of pixels is static, viewers must have their eyes in a certain place in order to perceive the effect. Too close or too far away and light begins to leak in from the other set of pixels, or the 3D illusion is destroyed otherwise.
In addition, with the current 3D TV, movie and game services, a 3D set top box/DVR is required in order to receive 3D programming. Consumers are charged with additional fees for using 3D setup box. Eliminating both 3D glasses and 3D set top box are both desirable for consumers.
Thus, it is desirable to solve some of the problems associated with displaying 2D information as 3D electronic content.